Mississippi College Strengthens Ties With China

December 12, 2013

Mississippi College leaders are stepping up their partnerships with institutions in China.

MC officials say they are joining hands with the Dongfang International Center for Educational Exchange. It’s a subsidiary of the China Scholarship Council that will bring Chinese students to study at the Baptist-affiliated university in Clinton.

MC President Lee Royce welcomed Chinese visitors at his office in Nelson Hall in early December as the Christian university prepares to sign a memorandum of understanding with the scholarship council.

The East Asian nation of 1.3 billion people typically sends more than 150 students to Mississippi College every year. MC enrolls about 200 international students from two-dozen nations.

“MC is delighted to sign the agreements,” said vice president for academic affairs Ron Howard, who joined the meeting with the representatives from China on the Clinton campus December 10.

Recruiting Chinese students to America, the agency is affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education. The undergraduate and graduate students are subsidized by the Chinese government to study in the USA.

The memo of understanding, Howard said, “potentially opens up the opportunity for Chinese undergraduates to study two years in China and then two years at MC” and enables them to earn Mississippi College diplomas.

“The appeal of Mississippi College among Chinese students is strong because of the many high quality academic programs offered by the university at such a reasonable cost,” Howard said.

MC has seen several of its graduates from the Clinton campus win scholarships to China in recent years, including 2011 graduates Daniel Jones, Caleb Wilkinson, Betty Moore and John Mark Kolb. In 2010, Laurel native and Mississippi College graduate Clinton Myers earned a scholarship to work on a master’s degree at Hunzhong Normal University in China.

Mei-Chi Piletz, a native of Taiwan who serves as director of MC’s Office of Global Education, was among the university leaders greeting the Chinese visitors. The guests from China included the agency’s director, Xiulan Kang.

“We are excited to have this opportunity to work with the Dongfang International Center for Educational Exchange,” Piletz said.

Enrolling 5,030 students in Fall 2013, MC is Mississippi’s largest private university.

Photo: Mississippi College Vice President for Academic Affairs Ron Howard, MC President Lee Royce and Global Education Office Director Mei-Chi Piletz welcomed visitors from China in early December. MC plans to work with the Dongfang International Center for Educational Exchange, a subsidiary of the China Scholarship Council.